UN lowers world economic growth forecasts

UNITED NATIONS--The United Nations slightly lowered its forecasts for global economic growth in 2014 and 2015 on Wednesday citing a variety of reasons including the exceptionally cold winter in the United States, the escalating political crisis in Ukraine, and financial turbulence earlier this year.

The new forecasts predict economic growth of 2.8 percent in 2014 and 3.2 percent in 2015, down from U.N. forecasts in December of 3 percent growth this year and 3.3 percent growth next year.

Pingfan Hong, the head of the U.N.'s Global Economic Monitoring Unit, told a news conference launching the report that “more than five years after the financial crisis, the world economy has not recovered back to running at full capacity.”

Hong said one reason the U.N. lowered its forecasts was because it did not take into account the colder than usaual winter in North America, which significantly impeded economic activity in the United States.